The floor or bed of a truck, such as a pick-up or van, has a cargo-bearing surface which is typically designed to allow the cargo being hauled to be slid or rolled across the surface to facilitate loading. The cargo-bearing surface or floor is often made of metal and is embossed or provided with grooves in order to improve the rigidity of the floor for the given thickness of the metal. Trucks of the pick-up style are commonly provided with molded plastic liners to protect the metal bed from the elements and inadvertent damage during cargo loading, hauling and unloading. Because of the plastic composition of these bed liners, cargo is typically even more prone to sliding about than on the original metal bed. Rubber has been added to the plastic in order to increase the coefficient of friction of the cargo bearing surface of the liner. Also rubber mats are used under the cargo in order to inhibit cargo movement during transit. With many loads it is necessary to use ropes to secure the cargo in place which is time consuming and often difficult to accomplish effectively because the tie downs are too high or outside the truck bed or in a location, even if within the truck bed, that is difficult to use.
The most commonly used plastic, protective liners have fairly deep grooves which run substantially parallel to one another and along the longitudinal axis of the truck. The device of the present invention is able to take advantage of this aspect of the bed liner design to hold cargo in place without the use of tie down ropes.